Thera 7.5: Sarabhanga
Tipitaka >> Sutta Pitaka >> Khuddaka Nikaya >> Theragatha >> Thera(228):Sarabhanga Adapted from the Archaic Translation by Mrs. C.A.F. Rhys Davids. Note: 'C' in Pali text is pronounced as 'ch' as in 'China'. ---- Chapter VII. Seven Verses =228. Sarabhanga= Reborn in this Buddha-age at Rājagaha, as the son of a certain brahmin(priest), he was given a name according to or independent of family traditions, he having no distinctive marks1 that name is forgotten. But he became, when of age, an ascetic, making a hut for himself out of reed-stalks, which he had broken off, and from that time he was known as Sara-bhanga - reed-plucker. Now the Exalted One(Buddha), looking over the world with the Awakened(divine) Eye, discerned in him the conditions of arahantship(enlightenment), and going to him taught him the Path(Dhamma). And he, convicted and becoming a member, in due course won arahantship(enlightenment), continuing to live in his hut. This became decayed and crumbling, and people noticing it, said: 'Why, your reverence, do you not repair it?' The Thera, saying: 'The hut was made when I was doing ascetic practices; now I cannot do the like,' set forth the whole matter thus: ---- 487 Sare hatthehi bhañjitvā katvāna kuṭimacchisaɱ,|| Tena me sarabhaŋgoti nāmaɱ sammutiyā ahu.|| || 488 Na 51 mayhaɱ kappate ajja sare hatthehi bhañjituɱ,|| Sikkhāpadā no paññattā gotamena yasassinā.|| || 489 Sakalaɱ samattaɱ rogaɱ sarabhaŋgo nāddasaɱ4 pubbe,|| So'yaɱ rogo diṭṭho vacanakarenātidevassa.|| || 490 Yeneva maggena gato vipassī|| Yeneva maggena sikhī ca nessabhū,|| Kakusandhakoṇāgamanā ca kassapo|| Tenañjasena agamāsi gotamo.|| || 491 Vītataṇhā anādānā satta buddhā khayogadhā,|| Yehayaɱ1 denito dhammo dhammabhūtehi tādihi.|| || 492 Cattāri ariyasaccāni anukampāya pāṇinaɱ,|| Dukkhaɱ samudayo maggo nirodho dukkhasaŋkhayo.|| || 493 Yasmiɱ nivattate dukkhaɱ saɱsārasmiɱ anantakaɱ,|| Bhedā imassa kāyassa jīvitassa ca saŋkhayā,|| Añño punabbhavo natthi suvimuttomhi sabbadhī' ti.|| || ---- 487 yes, reeds in handfuls once I plucked, and built A hut in which I stayed; hence the name 'Reedpicker' given me by the common voice. 488 But not to me did it belong to-day To pluck the reeds in handfuls as of yore, Because of what the training did prescribe, Revealed to us by glorious Gotama(Buddha). 489 How wholly and entirely he did ail:- That had Reedpicker never seen before. This much ailing state he came to see Through word of Him who is beyond the gods. 490 The self-same Path by which Vipassi(First Buddha) went, The Path of Sikhi(Buddha) and of Vessabhu(Buddha), Of Kakusandha, Konagamana, And Kassapa Buddhas, even by that very Road Lo! now to us there comes Gotama(Buddha). 491 And all these seven Buddhas,2 - they for whom Craving was dead, and nothing was grasped, and who Stood planted on Abolishing of sorrow3 - They taught this Path(Dhamma), yes, even such as they, Who were themselves the body of the Path(Dhamma),4 492 In great compassion for us all, even these Four Ariyan Truths: the Truth of sorrow; the Cause; The Path; the End, the abolishing, of sorrow, 493 By which the endless tale of grief and pain In life's great cycle cannot take its course;5 For when this body dies and life is spent, No other rebirth comes more - yes, free Am I from birth, from evil utterly!6 ---- 1 See legend in CCXXXII., CCXXXIII. 2 On the seven see Dialogues, i. 1 ff. 3 Khayogadhā. Khaya - Nibbāna (Commentary). 4 Dhammabhūtā - Path(Dhamma), become dhammakāyā, paraphrases Dhamniapāla, using the term so largely coming into favour in Mahāyānism. 5 Nibbattate, paraphrased as (nirvattate) na pavattati, (no) uppajjati, i.e., through nirodha, Nibbāna. The symbolism (hut = body) holds, but the reason for not rebuilting his hut would more likely have been the need to destroy plant life to do so. 6 So the Commentary: sabbehi kilesehi, sabbehi bhavehi. The reader might well miss the point of this fine poem without the simple but illuminating legend, and imagine it was not becoming for a Thera to work with his hands, as Dr. Neumann's rendering seems to imply. The bhikkhus(monks) built 'huts' galore, made and mended their garments, etc. But Sarabhanga's point is that of those other two Hut-theras in LVI, LVII.: their 'one thing needful' is the non-renewal of the attabhāva-kutikā, as the Commentary calls it, the 'personal organism-hut,' and hence it is, that he so harps on the ending of sorrow - i.e., of rebirth. The state of his reed-hut is a trifling detail, useful only as a symbol. Poem and legend may have grown up out of the interpretation of the name. This occurs as that of a seer, not only in the Jātakas (iii. 454; v. 127 ff.), but also in the Mahābhārata and Rāmāyana. ----